July 2019 Ministry update

Psalm 62:5-6. Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from him.  Truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.

It is great to return back “home” to Canada.  We don’t realize how much stress we carry, until after a few weeks we notice a big difference in how we feel.  It is such a different world in Guatemala.  Crazy driving that requires 100% of both our attention, the language barrier, the constant needs presented before us, many of the cultural differences and the difficult decisions we have to make with regard to those needs, often on a daily basis.

Plus our time in Guatemala ended on a hard note.  Just a week or so before coming home, I, Eileen and our daughter and son in law and two grand kids came across a man in distress laying on the side of the road, with a few onlookers, but no one helping.  He had no pulse, and it appeared he had had a heart attack so while I performed CPR and Chris tried to get an ambulance to come, in the end no one came in time, and the man passed away.  

In North America, you dial 911 and do what you can until someone who knows more than you comes and takes over.  It does not happen like that in Guatemala.  It is another one of those things that has been hard to reconcile between the two worlds we live in.  Although I know I did everything I could, it has taken a bit of processing for me.

However, by the grace of God we move forward.

Our ministry has been left in the capable hands of Chris and Leah while we are back in Canada.  They have been taking ministry opportunities in new villages as well as navigating life with three kids, two in a new, Spanish only school.

We spent two weeks at the North Okanagan Gleaners, camping and volunteering and catching up with all the regulars who come throughout the week.  We thoroughly enjoyed that time and we consider ourselves very blessed to be a part of the full circle of Gleaners, right from processing and production to being able to deliver food and medical equipment at the other end in Guatemala.

​Praise God we have had many donations come in to build the next maternity clinic in the village of Santa Marta and have reached our budget point for this project.  Your donated dollars go directly to the building materials.  The land has been donated as community property and the men of the village will be donating their time to build.  Each family will donate towards the cost of the hire of an Albañil, a Builder, to lead them in the construction.  We are just waiting on a few quotes to come in for materials and then will give the go ahead to get started.

Ministry Wish list:  

​We are hoping to send another container to Guatemala this fall but at this point we are still short of funds.

We have been working with Sergio Barahona for about six months now.  He is our interpreter for the Q’ekchi’ language.  We have spoken about him in previous ministry updates.  He graduated from a Calvary Chapel Bible College in Antigua just over a year ago and felt God calling him to Pastor in the village he grew up in.  So he started a Church, with the help of his parents in his small Q’ekchi’ village.

Up to now, we have hired him on an as needed basis, as an interpreter, but he goes above and beyond those duties every time.  He loves his people and he has a passion for sharing the truth of the Gospel.  After we show The Hope or one of our other films he is able to speak to the people in their heart language, Q’ekchi’,  and so we work together as a team in addressing some of the physical needs and the spiritual needs in the villages we go to.  

Sergio has become invaluable to our ministry in sharing the Gospel and it has been on our hearts to hire him on a part time basis.  He would be doing a lot more than interpreting, as he would follow up in villages where the gospel has been presented already.  He is planning on leading a bible study in the village of Chitu, with our son in law Chris, starting soon.  This is a community that is divided, but after showing The Hope, sharing Gleaners food, building the maternity clinic, bringing our team for children’s ministry last March, they are open to Sergio coming and leading a weekly bible study.  He was the one that saw the division and God put on his heart to do this and praise God they were open to him coming.

Although he is Pastoring a Church, he also needs an income.  Many village Pastors cannot rely on Church tithes to survive.  In fact it’s not unusual in many of the villages for Pastors to receive a tithe of a handful of corn or a live chicken.

Would you or your Church consider donating monthly towards our ministry in order to offer a part time salary for Sergio?  This leaves him time to fulfil the Pastoral duties at his Church, but provides him a much needed income.  For more information, please feel free to contact us.

Thank you, all who have donated towards our ministry and the projects.  We can’t express enough how these gifts bring hope and change lives.  Nutrition for needy communities, and wheelchairs or a mattress can make such a huge difference in some of these people’s lives.  A maternity clinic, where if a woman goes into labour in her home in the mountains where there is only a trail, this allows a safe and clean place to come and be monitored by the midwife.   If an ambulance is needed, at least there is a road to get there, allowing a better outcome for both mom and baby.  These gifts allow us to continue to love our neighbour and be the hands and feet of Jesus.

Also, for those of you who pray for us, thank you.  We will move forward as the Lord directs and provides.

We want to share a Vimeo video link.  Just a short video look at our last several months of ministry in Guatemala.

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Want to view the film we show "The Hope", you can watch it in English here www.thehopeproject.com.  It is well worth the 80 minutes.
 
Blessings,
Denis & Eileen Nogue
Seeds to Harvest Ministries
 
 
Guatemala Facts:

• 58% of the national population have incomes below the extreme poverty line
• More than 75% of the national population lives below the poverty line
• 45% of the population over the age of 15 is illiterate
• 42% of Guatemalan citizens do NOT have access to clean water
• Over half of children in Guatemala have chronic malnutrition.  In some areas the rate is as high as 90%
• Guatemala has the highest percentage of malnourished children in all of Latin America

Donation options:
- Online at Commission to Every Nation click: http://www.cten.org/denisnogue 

- Cheque's can be made out to:
Commission To Every Nation Canada
PO Box 22017
11500 Tecumseh Rd. E.
Windsor, Ontario N8N 5G6
(indicate "Nogue" in the memo line)

- United States residents:
Commission To Every Nation
P.O. Box 291307
Kerrville, TX 78029-1307
(indicate "Nogue" in the memo line)

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